Amedeo Modigliani - biography and paintings of the artist in the genre of Expressionism - Art Challenge. Amedeo Modigliani paintings

He died in poverty so that his descendants could compete with their fortunes to add paintings to their collections. famous master. The name of Amedeo Modigliani is shrouded in legends and fraught with scandals. Noise and foam often accompany the fate of true geniuses. This is what happened with this great painter.

Genius since childhood

Famous Italian artist Jewish origin Amedeo Modigliani was born in Livorno in 1884. His father declared himself bankrupt when his son was very young, and Amedeo's mother, Eugenia, took full care of the family.

"Boy in a Blue Shirt" 1919
The woman literally idolized her youngest son. He was sickly and therefore loved by his mother even more. Amedeo responded to Eugenia with reality and, as in most Jewish families, was too attached to his mother.

Eugenia Modigliani is trying to ensure that her beloved baby receives a comprehensive education. When Amedeo turned 14, she sent him to the school of the artist Micheli. The teenager literally goes crazy about painting and paints all day and night.

However, the health of young Modigliani is still weak, and in order to treat him, in 1900 Eugenia takes her son to Capri, visiting Rome, Venice, and Florence along the way. There, the young artist gets acquainted with the paintings of the greatest Italian masters and even takes several lessons from Botticelli himself.

"Pink Blouse" 1919
Two years later, Amedeo begins to study the Florentine school of painting, and then takes lessons from Venetian masters.

So, learning from great examples, Modigliani began to develop his own technique.

Bohemian Paris

Having worked in Italy for several years, at some point Amedeo realizes that he does not have enough air. We need new soil, new space in order to grow and move forward. And he moves to France.

Modigliani arrives in Paris in 1906 with no money and only painting supplies. He wanders around cheap furnished apartments, drinks a lot, goes on carouses and, as they say, even tries drugs, which does not prevent him from strictly monitoring his appearance. Modigliani was always impeccably dressed, even if this meant he had to wash his shirt every night. It’s no wonder that women are crazy about the bohemian but poor artist.

Akhmatova and Modigliani

Acquaintance with the great Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova opened a new stage in Amedeo’s work. Akhmatova came to Paris with her husband Nikolai Gumilev. But this does not stop the artist. Amedeo begins to court Anna and literally idolizes her. She calls her the Egyptian queen and draws a lot.

"The Artist's Wife" 1918
True, only one portrait of the master has survived to this day, which Akhmatova considered her main wealth. Two more pencil drawing naked Akhmatova were found not so long ago.

The rest of Modigliani's paintings perished or disappeared after the revolution.

Modigliani and Hastings

After breaking up with Akhmatova, Modigliani fell into depression, from which a new relationship brought him out. Journalist and literary critic, traveler and poet Beatrice Hastings met the artist in 1914.

They both turned out to be so emotional and hot that the whole of Paris watched their whirlwind romance with curiosity. Quarrels, scenes of jealousy, jumping out of windows, fights and equally violent reconciliation. This love drained both of them.

"Jeanne Hebuterne in a Red Shawl" 1917
Beatrice tried to wean Amedeo from alcohol, but she was not successful. The scandals became more and more prolonged. And in the end, the woman decides to break off the relationship.

However, this period is considered the most fruitful in terms of creativity. Critics call the paintings painted under the inspiration of the muse Beatrice the best in Modigliani’s creative heritage.

last love

An artist cannot live without love. A cold heart is incapable of creativity. And so, in 1917, he meets a student named Zhanna, whom he first makes his model, and then falls madly in love with her.

Jeanne's parents rebelled against such a relationship. A Jew leading a riotous lifestyle seems to them to be the worst match for their daughter that they can think of. However, the couple is happy. So that their happiness is not interfered with, they leave for Nice. There Zhanna finds out that she is pregnant. Modigliani invites her to legalize the relationship, but the sharply deteriorating state of health and worsening tuberculosis forces her to postpone these plans.

“Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne” 1918
The birth of a daughter, who was named after Amedeo's beloved Jeanne, makes her forget about her problems for a while. However, not for long.

In 1919, Amedeo and Jeanne and their daughter returned to Paris. The artist was very bad. Tuberculosis is progressing. Amedeo ends up in a clinic for the poor.

At this time, his agent begins to slowly sell the master's paintings. Interest in the painting of Amedeo Modigliani began to awaken. However, the artist will no longer know about this.

He died in complete poverty in a homeless shelter, and his friend Zhanna, having learned about this, jumped out of the window out of grief. At this time, she was carrying her second child, Amedeo.

All of Paris took to the streets to see off the genius last way. His girlfriend was modestly buried the next day, recognizing her rights as the wife of the deceased artist.

"Girl in a Black Apron" 1918
In the end, Jeanne’s parents also accepted this fate for their daughter, ten years later agreeing to rebury the girl’s ashes in Modigliani’s grave. So after death, the lovers were united with each other forever.

Well, their daughter grew up and devoted her whole life to studying the creativity of her parents.

The special world of Amedeo Modigliani

The world of Amedeo Modigliani is a man-universe. His heroes are almost gods. They are beautiful in their external, physical beauty. But this is a very unusual beauty. Sometimes it seems that the characters’ characters break out of their corporeal shell and begin to live their own separate lives, they are so vividly written.

"Oscar Meshchaninov" 1917
Modigliani paints passers-by, acquaintances, children. He is not interested in surroundings - people are important to him.

He often paid for food with these paintings. And ironically, years after their death, they were worth fortunes. During his lifetime, the genius was not understood, and Modigliani, in fact, always remained an incredibly lonely, unrecognized genius.

Unfortunately, this often happens to real creators: their fame reaches them only after death.

Modigliani, who lived and died in Montparnasse, a stranger who lost contact with his homeland and found in France the true home of his art, is perhaps the most modern of our modern artists. He was able to express not only acute feeling time, but also the time-independent truth of humanity. Be contemporary artist- this, in essence, means creatively conveying the awe of one’s era, expressing its living and deep psychology. To do this, it is not enough to dwell on the external appearance of things; for this you need to be able to reveal their soul. This is exactly what Modigliani, the artist of Montparnasse, an artist belonging to the whole world, was able to do superbly.”1

1 (Quote from the text published in the magazine "Monparnasse". Paris, 1928, No. 50.)

What can be added to these beautiful words of Modigliani’s sensitive, honest-minded contemporary? Is it just that his work remains the same today for us, for everyone who cherishes true humanity in art, captured in the images of high and passionate poetry

Amedeo Modigliani

“Should I tell you what qualities, in my opinion, define real art?” the very old Renoir once asked one of his future biographers, Walter Pach. “It should be indescribable and inimitable... A work of art should swoop down on the viewer, embrace "It is through a work of art that the artist conveys his passion, it is the current that he emits and with which he draws the viewer into his obsession." It seems to me that, in any case, such a definition applies to some works of the mature Modigliani.

Self Portrait - 1919 - Painting - oil on canvas

Italian painter, sculptor; belonged to the "Paris School". Grace of linear silhouettes, subtle color relationships, heightened expressiveness emotional states create a special world of portrait images.

The love between Amedeo Modigliani and Jeanne Hebuterne is admirable. Zhanna loved her Modi with all her heart and supported her in everything. Even when he spent hours painting nude models, she had nothing against it. Modigliani, stubborn and hot-tempered, was charmed by the soft calm of his beloved. It seems that just recently he was breaking dishes during noisy quarrels with Beatrice Hastings, just recently he abandoned Simone Thiroux and her child, and then... He was in love. The fate of the poor, tuberculosis-stricken, unknown artist decided to give him a farewell gift. She gave him true love.

Jeanne Hebuterne - 1917-1918 - Private collection - Painting - fresco

Coffee (Portrait Jeanne Hébuterne) - 1919 - Barnes Foundation, Lincoln University, Merion, PA, USA - Painting - oil on canvas

Jeanne Hebuterne - 1919 - Israel Museum - Painting - oil on canvas

Jeanne Hebuterne (also known as In Front of a Door) - 1919 - Private collection - Painting - oil on canvas - Height 129.54 cm (51 in), Width 81.6 cm (32.13 in)

Jeanne Hebuterne in a Hat - 1919 - Private collection - Painting - oil on canvas

Jeanne Hebuterne in a Large Hat (also known as Portrait of Woman in Hat) - 1918 - Private collection - Painting - oil on canvas Height 55 cm (21.65 in), Width 38 cm (14.96 in)

Jeanne Hebuterne in a Scarf - 1919 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne - 1917 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne - 1918 - Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York, NY - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne - 1918 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne - 1919 PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne Seated in an Armchair - 1918 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne Seated in Profile - 1918 - The Barnes Foundation - Painting - oil on c

Portrait of Jeanne Hebutern - 1918 - Yale University Art Gallery - New Haven, CT - Painting - oil on canvas

Jeanne Hebuterne - Amedeo Modigliani's Love. That's right, Love with a capital. The day after Amedeo's death, she, unable to bear the grief, jumped out of the window.

His creative life was, in essence, instantaneous, it all fit into ten to twelve years of furiously intense work, and this “period,” oversaturated with unfinished searches, turned out to be tragically unique.

At the end of his biography it is customary to put a bold point: finally, Modigliani found himself and expressed himself to the end. And he burned out in mid-sentence, his creative flight was cut short catastrophically, he, too, turned out to be one of those who “did not live up to theirs in the world, did not love theirs on earth” and, most importantly, did not accomplish anything. Even on the basis of what he did undeniably absolutely in this one and only “period” of his, which continues to live for us even today, who can say where, in what new and, perhaps, completely unexpected directions, in what unknown Would this passionate talent, yearning for some final, all-exhaustive truth, rush to the depths? There is only one thing we can be sure of: that he would not have stopped at what he had already achieved.

Let's take a closer look at it, let's try to peer through the inevitable imperfection of any book reproductions. Slowly, one after another, let us unfold these portraits and drawings in front of us, so unusual, strange and at first glance monotonous, and then increasingly attracting us with some meaningful internal diversity, some deep, not always immediately revealed inner meaning. You will probably be amazed, and perhaps even captivated, by the passionate insistence of this poetic language, and it will not be so easy for you to get rid of what he suggests or vaguely whispers or suggests.

If you look carefully, the first impressions of the one-facedness and monotony of these images will easily be destroyed. The more you peer into these faces and outlines, the more you are overcome by a feeling of engrossing depths that lurk either under the transparently clear, or under the displaced, crumpled and as if deliberately clouded surface of the image. In the very repetition of techniques (on closer examination there will be quite a few of them) you will feel the artist’s intense striving for something most important to him, and perhaps the most secret in all these people. You will feel that they were not chosen by chance, that they seem to be drawn to the same magnet. And perhaps it will seem to you that all of them, while remaining themselves, found themselves involved in the same lyrical inner world- the world is restless, untidy, sensitively anxious, full of unresolved questions and secret melancholy.

Modigliani writes and draws almost exclusively only portraits. It has long been said that even his famous nudes and nudes are psychologically “portrait” in their own way. In some reference books and encyclopedias he is called a “portrait painter”, primarily and by vocation. But what kind of strange portraitist is this, who only chooses his models himself and does not accept any orders, except perhaps from his own brother, a free artist, or from a congenial art lover? And who will order his portrait from him if he does not first give up all hope of a direct resemblance?

Blonde Nude - 1917 - Painting oil on canvas

He is a born, incorrigible distorter of the obvious and familiar, this eccentric who has doomed himself to an eternal search for unexpected truths. And it’s a strange thing: behind the roughly emphasized convention, we can suddenly discover in his paintings something absolutely real, and behind the deliberate simplification - something vitally complex and poetically sublime.

Here in some portrait there is an incredible arrow-shaped nose and an unnaturally long neck, and for some reason there are no eyes, no pupils, instead of them there are small ovals, as if by a spoiled child, shaded or painted over with something bluish-greenish. But there is a gaze, and sometimes a very intent one; and there is a character, and a mood, and an inner life, and an attitude towards surrounding life. And sometimes even something more: something that secretly excites, that fills the soul of the artist himself, in some inscrutable way connecting him with the model and dictating to him the immutability, necessity, uniqueness of these, and not any other means of artistic expression .

Lunia Czechovska - 1919 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

In another portrait, nearby, the eyes will be wide open and extremely expressive in the smallest details. But, perhaps, the simplicity of the palette, “excessive” definiteness or, conversely, “blurred” lines OR some other “conventionality” will be even more clearly reflected. In itself, this does not mean anything for Modigliani - in either case. This is important only in general, in the poetic discovery of the image.

Jeanne Hebuterne with Hat and Necklace - 1917 - Private collection - Painting - oil on canvas

But here is a drawing in which, it seems, there is nothing complete, in which what is familiar to our eyes is absent, and for some reason the unexpected and optional becomes the main thing. A drawing that seemed to appear “out of nothing,” out of elusiveness, out of thin air. But this amazingly free drawing by Modigliani is neither a whim nor a vague, careless hint. He is the subtlest, but he is also the most defined. In its grammatical understatement there is an almost tangible completeness of the poetically expressed, poured out image. And here, in the drawings, as in the painted portraits of Modigliani, again there is only something of an external resemblance to the model, and here he is a dubious “portrait painter”, and here the nature is transformed by the imperious will of the artist, which is not directly related to her, by his secret and impatient searches, gentle or impetuous touches. As if having looked closely at the one who is now in front of him, in one fell swoop having dealt with him almost into a caricature or raising him almost to a symbol, he will immediately throw this model of his on an irreparably unfinished canvas, on a half-crumpled piece of paper, and some force will draw him further, to another, to others, to new searches for Man.

Modigliani needs his own new form, his own writing techniques due to his directness and sincerity. But only. He is an anti-formalist by his spiritual nature, and it is surprising how rarely he contradicts himself in this sense, living in Paris in an era of frenzied enthusiasm for form as such - form for form's sake. He never consciously puts her between himself and the life around him. That is why he is so averse to all abstractionism. Jean Cocteau was one of the first to see this astutely: 1 “Modigliani does not elongate faces, does not emphasize their asymmetry, does not gouge out one of a person’s eyes for some reason, does not lengthen the neck. All this comes together naturally in his soul. This is how he painted us at tables in "Rotunda," he drew endlessly, this is how he perceived us, judged, loved or refuted. His drawing was a silent conversation. It was a dialogue between his line and our lines."2

1(Translation of this text and all French, English, German texts made by the author.)
2(Jean Cocteau. Modigliani. Paris, Hazan, 1951.)

The world he creates is amazingly real. Through the unusualness and sometimes even sophistication of some of his techniques, the immutability of the real existence of his images emerges. He settled them on earth, and since then they have lived among us, easily recognizable from the inside, even though we have never seen those who served as his model. He found his way, his special ability to introduce people to those whom he chose, pulled out of the crowd, from the environment, from his time, whether he loved them or not. He made us want to understand their longing and dreams, their hidden pain or contempt, downtroddenness or pride, challenge or humility. Even the most “conventional” and “simplified” of his portraits are incredibly close to us, directed at us by the artist. This is their special impact. Usually no one introduces anyone to anyone this way: it’s very immediate and very intimate.

Of course, he is no revolutionary - neither in life nor in art. And the social in his work is not at all equivalent to the revolutionary. An open direct challenge to hostile, contrary to his nature, phenomena of the surrounding life is rarely found in his work. And yet, Cocteau is right when he says that this artist was never indifferent to what surrounded him, that he always “judged, loved or refuted.” Not only in the famous sarcastic, almost poster-like “Married Couple,” but also in other canvases and in a number of drawings, one cannot help but feel how Modigliani hated well-fed complacency, cheap snobbery, conspicuous or skillfully veiled vulgarity, and all kinds of bourgeoisness.

Bride and Groom (also known as The Newlyweds) - 1915-1916 - oil on canvas

But understanding and sympathy clearly prevail over judgment and refutation in his work. Love prevails. With what heightened, subtle sensitivity he captures and conveys to us human dramas, with what careful obscurity he penetrates into the very depths of hidden melancholy, inescapable and stubbornly hidden from indifferent glances. How he knows how to hear the silent, unspoken reproach of an offended, disadvantaged childhood, a deceived, failed youth. There is a lot of all this, for another lover of thoughtless optimism, perhaps even too much in the gallery of people closest to Modigliani. But what to do if he sees this, first of all, and most often in “ordinary” people, in people not from “society”, to whom he is always so drawn: in the youth of the urban and rural lower classes, maids and concierges, models and milliners, delivery boys and apprentices, and sometimes among the women of the Parisian sidewalks. This does not at all mean that Modigliani is chained to suffering alone, that he is an artist of hopelessly resigned grief. No, he greedily catches and knows how to make you shine real strength human dignity, and active, sensitive human kindness, and persistent spiritual integrity. Especially - in artists and poets, and among them - especially in those who, with silent persistence, gritting their teeth, walked the hard path of rejected but not bowed talent. And no wonder. After all, this was his path too - the path of “a short life, to the fullest,” which he once prophesied for himself.

The Pretty Housewife - 1915 - The Barnes Foundation - Painting - oil on canvas
Pretty Housewife, 1915

Serving Woman (also known as La Fantesca) - 1915 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas
The Maid (La Frantesca)

However, even in these years and later, Modigliani prefers to paint not the well-fed Parisian bourgeoisie, the “masters of life,” but those who are spiritually close to him - Max Jacob, Picasso, Cendrars, Zborovsky, Lipchitz, Diego Rivera, Kisliig, sculptors Laurent and Meshchaninov, good doctor Devraigne in a military jacket, the actor Gaston Modot on vacation, in an open-collared shirt, some cute gray-bearded provincial notary with a pipe in his hand, some young peasant with heavy hands unaccustomed to rest on his knees, countless of his friends from the lower classes of Paris. .

Portrait of Max Jacob - 1916 - Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen - Dusseldorf - Painting - oil on canvas

In 1897, Max Jacob moved to Paris. He searched for himself for a long time, one activity quickly gave way to another. Jacob worked as a reporter, a street magician, a clerk, and even a carpenter. He had a special artistic talent: he was well versed in painting and wrote critical articles. Max Jacob often visited exhibitions, where he met Pablo Picasso, and later Modigliani.
Jacob's friends considered him an ambiguous person, an inventor and dreamer, a lover of mysticism.
Many artists depicted Jacob in their paintings, but Modigliani’s portrait became the most famous.

Portrait of Pablo Picasso - 1915 - PC - Painting - oil on cardboard

Modigliani first met Picasso when he arrived in Paris in 1906. Their paths crossed often during the First World War: when most of their mutual friends went to the front with the French army, they remained in Paris. Modigliani, although not French, like Picasso, wanted to go to the front, but was refused for health reasons.
The usual meeting place for Picasso and Modigliani was the Rotunda cafe, one of the most popular establishments among bohemians. The artists spent hours there in intimate conversations. Picasso admired the sense of style that was inherent in Modigliani, and even once said that Modigliani was almost the only one he knew knowledgeable in fashion.
Both artists were partial to African art, which subsequently affected their work.

The scriptwriters of the film “Modigliani” point to supposedly strong competition between the artists, but the memories of friends do not confirm this. Picasso and Modigliani were not best friends, however, the idea of ​​their rivalry is invented to provide contrast to the storyline.

1917 Portrait de Blaise Cendrars. 61x50 cm Rome, Collection Gualino

Portrait of Leopold Zborowski - 1917-18 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Amedeo Modigliani met Zborovsky at a difficult time. It was 1916, the war, and few people even bought paintings famous artists. Nobody cared about young talents; Modigliani earned nothing and practically starved.
The Polish poet Leopold Zborowski was inspired by Modigliani's work immediately when he first saw the paintings. They became close friends. Zborovsky believed so much in Modigliani’s great future that he vowed to make it happen at all costs. famous artist. Having allocated the largest room in his house as a studio for the artist, he wandered tirelessly all over Paris in the hope of at least selling something. But, unfortunately, the paintings were rarely sold. Zborowski's wife, Hanka, patiently cared for Amedeo, turning a blind eye to his difficult character.
Zborovsky’s efforts were ultimately not in vain, and in 1917 he managed to arrange an exhibition for Modigliani in the small gallery of Bertha Weil, which had long liked his paintings.
The exhibition, unfortunately, could not be called successful.

Leopold Zborowski - 1919 - Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo. Painting - oil on canvas

Modigliani knows how to poeticize the appearance of a person whom he loves and honors, knows how to elevate him above the prose of everyday life: there is something majestic in inner peace, in dignity and simplicity, in the very femininity of his “Anna Zborovskaya” from the collection of the Roman Gallery contemporary art. The fluffy white collar, raised high on the right and back, as if slightly supporting the model’s head against a dark red background, was not without reason considered by some art critics to be almost an attribute of Spanish queens.

Anna (Hanka) Zborowska - Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna - Rome (Italy)

Anna (Hanka) Zabrowska - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Anna Zborowska - 1917 - Museum of Modern Art - New York - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Anna Zborowska - 1919 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

1917 Jacques Lipchitz et sa femme 81x54 cm Chicago, Art Institute

Portrait of Diego Rivera - 1914 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

At the end of June 1911, the Mexican painter and political figure Diego Rivera arrived in Paris. Soon he met Modigliani. They were often seen together in cafes: they drank and sometimes became rowdy, hurling obscene phrases at passers-by.
During this period, Rivera wrote "Catalan Landscape", which determined a new direction in his work: he discovered a completely new technique.

Portrait de Diego Rivera - 1914 - Huile sur Toile. 100x81 cm Collection Particulière

1915 Portrait de Moïse Kisling Milan, Collection Emilio Jesi

Portrait of Henri Laurent, 1915, expressionism, Private Collection, oil on canvas

Portrait of Oscar Meistchaninoff - 1916 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Doctor Devaraigne - 1917 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait de Chaïm Soutine - 1916 - 100x65 cm Paris, Collection Particulière

Chaim Soutine moved to Paris after graduating from the School fine arts in Vilnius, in 1913. Jew Belarusian origin, the 10th child in an 11-child family, he could only rely on himself. During his first years, he lived in hunger and poverty, working in the “Beehive,” a hostel for poor artists, where he met Amedeo Modigliani. They struck up a very strong, but, unfortunately, short-lived friendship due to the early death of Modigliani.
Haim quickly developed his own technique and style of painting, and his work became a significant contribution to the development of expressionism.
Due to constant hunger, Chaim developed an ulcer. His face, framed by tousled hair, was constantly writhing in pain. But drawing was his salvation, it took him to another, Magic world, in which he forgot about his empty, aching stomach.

1916 Portrait de Chaïm Soutine Huile sur Toile 92x60 cm wngoa

This is how he wrote to his friends. But no friendship can cloud the vigilance of his eye (Vlaminck remembers the authority in his gaze at the model while working). He does not forgive a friend for what he does not accept, which always remains alien to him or even causes his hostility. In such cases, Modigliani becomes ironic, if not evil. Here is Beatrice Hastings with a self-confident, capricious, arrogant expression on her face.
Beatrice Hastings had an affair with Amedeo, which lasted about 2 years.

Portrait of Beatrice Hastings - 1915 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Beatrice Hastings - 1916 - The Barnes Foundation - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of Beatrice Hastings - 1915 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas 2

Beatrice Hastings Leaning on Her Elbow

Beatrice Hastings Standing by a Door

Beatrice Hastings, Seated - 1915 - Private collection

Beatrice Hastings

But bored, as if looking over people, the pretentious Paul Guillaume deliberately casually leaned on the back of his chair.

1916 Portrait de Paul Guillaume 81x54 cm Milan Civicca Galeria d"Arte Moderna

Modigliani knew Jean Cocteau very well as an unusually gifted person. He knew his brilliant, sharp mind, his multifaceted talent as a poet, artist, critic, composer of famous ballets, novelist and playwright. But at the same time, Cocteau was considered the founder of the style of “elegant bohemia,” “the inventor of fashions and ideas,” the personification of “winged craftiness,” “an acrobat of words,” an unsurpassed master of salon conversation about everything and anything. There is also something of this Cocteau in Modigliani’s portrait, where he seems to be pre-proportioned with the exaggeratedly high back and comfortable armrests of a stylish chair, all of straight lines and sharp angles - shoulders, elbows, eyebrows, even the tip of the nose: cold dandyism emanates from the adopted pose, and from the most elegant blue suit, and from the impeccable “butterfly” tie.

Portrait of Jean Cocteau - 1917 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

I do not have access to an exhaustive objective analysis of Modigliani's style. But there are some things in it general features, which probably catch the eye of every attentive viewer. It is impossible not to notice, for example, how much he has, especially among his earlier works, that is unfinished - or rather, something that many other artists would probably recognize as unfinished. Sometimes it may seem like a sketch, which for some reason he does not want to develop and improve, perhaps because he values ​​the first impression too much. Some people find this annoying; they talk about unjustified conventions, even about “inaccurate” painting. Juan Gris has an aphorism: “In general, one should strive for good painting, which is always conditional and precise, as opposed to bad painting, unconditional, but not precise” (“C”est, somme toute, faire une peinture inexacte et precise, lout le contraire de la mauvaise peinlure qui est exacle el imprecise")1.

1 (Quoted from the book: Pierre Courthion. Paris de temps nouveaux. Geneve, Skira, 1957.)

Or maybe this understatement, combined with the authority of mastery, is the main thing for us attractive force Modigliani?

Lionello Venturi and a number of other researchers of his work are confident that the basis of his stylistic originality is a line, as if leading the color. And indeed: smooth, soft or, on the contrary, hard, rough, exaggerated, thickened, it every now and then violates reality and at the same time revives it in an unexpected, striking quality. Freely capturing planes layered on top of each other, she creates a feeling of depth, volume, “the visibility of the invisible.” She seems to bring forward this beautiful Modigliani “physicality”, the play of the finest color nuances and tints, making them breathe, pulsate, and fill with warm light from within.

1918 Portrait de Jeanne Nébuterne. 46x29 cm. ParisCollection Particulière

Elvire au col blanc - 1918 - 92x65 cm - Paris Collection - Particulière

Etude pour le portrait de Franck Burty Havilland - 1914 - Huile sur Toile. Los Angeles County Museum

Frans Hellens - 1919 - PC - oil on canvas

Giovanotto dai Capelli Rosse - 1919 - oil on canvas

Girl on a Chair (also known as Mademoiselle Huguette) - 1918 - PC - oil on canvas - Height 91.4 cm (35.98 in) Width 60.3 cm (23.74 in)

Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz - 1917 - The Art Institute of Chicago (USA) - oil on canvas

Joseph Levi - 1910 - Private collection - Painting - oil on canvas

Little Girl in Black Apron - 1918 - Kunstmuseum Basel - Painting - oil on canvas

In the spring of 1919, Modigliani again spent some time in Capa. Sending a postcard from there to his mother with a view, he wrote to her on April 12: “As soon as I get settled, I’ll send you the exact address.” But soon he returned to Nice again, where all the time his work had been hampered by the hassle of restoring the missing papers. In addition, he also caught the “Spanish flu” there - a dangerous infectious disease that was then raging throughout Europe. As soon as he got out of bed, he went back to work.

The intensity of his creativity in this and the subsequent, Parisian periods is truly amazing, especially if you think about the fact that all this time he was already terminally ill, as it turned out later. How many portraits of Jeanne alone he painted then and how many drawings he made of her! And the famous “Girl in Blue”, and the wonderful portraits of Germaine Survage and Madame Osterlind, and the “Nurse with a Child”, which is usually called the “Gypsy”, and a whole series of his increasingly perfect nudes... All this was created for what about a year and a half.

Little Girl in Blue - 1918 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

The Pretty Vegetable Vendor (also known as La Belle Epiciere) - 1918 - PC - Painting - oil on canvas

Pink Blouse - 1919 - Musee Angladon - Avignon - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait de Madame L - 1917 - Painting - oil on canvas

Portrait of a Girl (also known as Victoria) - 1917 Tate Modern - London - Painting - oil on canvas

Ilya Ehrenburg, Russian poet, novelist and photographer, emigrated to France in 1909. In Paris, studying literary activity and while moving in the circles of young artists, he met Modigliani. Like Modigliani, Cocteau and other artists, he spent his evenings at the Rotunda cafe. It took Ehrenburg a long time to unravel the mystery of Modigliani’s restless character, which he described in “Poems about Eves” of 1915:

You were sitting on a low staircase,
Modigliani.
Your cries are that of a petrel, the tricks of a monkey.
And the oily light of a lowered lamp,
And the hot hair is blue!..
And suddenly I heard the terrible Dante -
Dark words began to hum and splash out.
You threw the book
You fell and jumped
You were jumping around the hall
And the flying candles swaddled you.
O madman without a name!
You shouted - “I can do it!” I can!"
And some clear pine trees
Grew up in a burning brain.
Great creature -
You went out, cried and lay down under the lantern.
http://www.a-modigliani.ru/okruzhenie/druzya.html

Thank you for your attention! To be continued...

Text based on the book Vitaly Yakovlevich Vilenkin "Amadeo Modigliani"

His first name means "beloved of God," but Amedeo Modigliani's life was not a blessed one. Today, portraits and sculptures by Modigliani adorn the collections of the world's main museums; he is one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. Modigliani is loved, his paintings are worth millions. The artist who worked for eternity is not forgotten. But his life was spent in poverty and suffering, and its ending became a real tragedy.

Amedeo Modigliani. Self-portrait, 1919

Handsome, charismatic, consumptive, and unhappy, Modigliani was the embodiment of the Parisian artist, living his life in a haze of hashish and alcohol. The German artist Ludwig Meidner called him "the last true representative of bohemianism." When he died at 35, his pregnant mistress jumped out of a window, killing herself, her unborn child, and leaving their baby daughter orphan.

“Modigliani’s canvases will tell subsequent generations a lot. And I look, and in front of me is a friend of my distant youth. How much love he had for people, how much concern for them! They write and write: “he drank, he was rowdy, he died.” That’s not the point. It’s not even a matter of his fate, which is edifying, like an ancient parable...”

Ilya Erenburg

Trouble Begins

Modigliani was born in 1884 in the Italian town of Livorno, near Pisa. He was the fourth and most youngest child in the family of Flaminio Modigliani, a coal and wood merchant. The future artist was unlucky right away - in the year of his birth, his father went bankrupt.

At the age of 11, Modigliani fell ill with pleurisy, and in 1898 with typhus, which at that time was considered incurable. He recovered, but it was this illness that changed his life forever. According to the stories of his mother, while lying in a feverish delirium, Modigliani raved about the masterpieces of Italian masters and recognized his destiny to become an artist. After recovery, Amedeo's parents allowed him to leave school so that he could begin taking drawing and painting lessons at the Livorno Academy of Arts.

As a child, he was also diagnosed with tuberculosis, which eventually killed him. And yet he was a real handsome man and managed to break many hearts during his short life.

Modigliani studied painting in his native Livorno, in Florence and at the Venice Institute of Arts. In 1906, when he turned twenty-two, Amedeo, with a small amount of money that his mother was able to raise for him, moved to Paris, which he had dreamed of for several years. At first he settled in a decent hotel, but very soon he moved to a tiny room in Montmartre.

The city made him poor, hungry, unhappy - and gave him inspiration. In the first years, he worked almost around the clock, drawing up to 150 sketches a day.

“Paris inspires me,” Modigliani wrote, “I am unhappy in Paris, but what is true is true - I can only work here.”

Modigliani, artist and Jew

“Modigliani, artist and Jew” - this is how Amedeo introduced himself to Anna Akhmatova in 1910. She said that their first meeting was like “the sting of a ringing wasp,” and many years later she wrote in an essay about the artist: “I knew that such a person should shine.”

They read poetry to each other French poets, went to the Louvre to see the Egyptian section, walked around Paris at night. Modigliani drew pencil portraits of Anna Andreevna, and a gray-eyed man appeared in Akhmatova’s poems of 1910 and 1911 lyrical hero. There is even a version that the famous Gray-Eyed King himself is none other than Modigliani.

Anna Akhmatova in Modigliani's drawing

They were not destined to be together for long. Akhmatova had to return to her husband in Russia. The lovers parted forever.

For four years from 1910, Modi was engaged mainly in sculpture, only occasionally returning to painting, but with the outbreak of war, new construction in Paris ceased, and it was almost impossible to get stone.

Modigliani's final turn to painting coincides with a new novel - with Beatrice Hastings, a bisexual British journalist. They spent two very tumultuous years together before she left him, unable to watch him destroy himself with binge drinking.

Amedeo Modigliani. Portrait of Beatrice Hastings

Beatrice was a very extraordinary woman - a bright intellectual, sarcastic and independent. Details of their romance, found in descriptions of contemporaries, include violent quarrels and even fights.

When Hastings left, Modigliani became involved with the tender young Simone Theroux, who bore him a son, but Amedeo refused to recognize him as hers.

The Last Muse and Shakespeare's Finale

In April 1917, Modigliani met nineteen-year-old student Jeanne Hebuterne. Blue eyes and pigtails, 'she was basically pregnant most the time they lived together." Her parents were horrified that her chosen one was a poor alcoholic and drug addict, and also a Jew - and disowned their daughter.

Amedeo Modigliani. Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne

Modigliani dedicated the most works to Jeanne Hébuterne, and it is her face that we will most likely remember when we talk about portraits by the “last bohemian artist of Paris.” Unfortunately, the girl’s love could no longer save Amedeo, although it inspired him to create many masterpieces.

Photographs of Jeanne Hebuterne and her portraits by Modigliani

By the time you meet your the last muse, Modigliani had been a heavy drinker for many years, starting his morning with a glass or pipe of hashish. They lived very poorly: the artist’s paintings were almost never sold. Part of the reason for this was his exceptionally bad character. The audience's lack of understanding infuriated Modigliani (“Why are there eyes without pupils?” they asked. “Why such huge necks?”). But he managed to scare off even those few collectors who were interested in his paintings with his outright rudeness.

There is a well-known story about how one rich young lady bought a Modigliani drawing and discovered that it was not signed. The girl approached the artist in a cafe and asked him to sign the work. But Modigliani was not in a good mood. He took a pen and wrote his name over the drawing, ruining it and frightening the customer.

The artist died penniless in a charity hospital from tuberculous meningitis. His pregnant wife jumped out of the window. Their one year old daughter remained an orphan. The girl, also named Jeanne, was adopted by Modigliani's sister. But that was all that was left in the family from genius artist: he exchanged every sketch, every painting for food, alcohol and rent.

But rumors of a tragedy in the spirit of Shakespeare instantly spread across Paris, collectors began hunting for the artist’s paintings, and the portraits he painted became famous. Now they belong to art dealers, who sell them at steadily rising prices. In 2015, a Modigliani painting was sold for a record $170 million at Christie’s.

All her life Jeanne studied her father, his fate, drawings and paintings. The result of her work is great biography"Modigliani: man and myth."

Based on materials: tanjand.livejourna, modernartconsulting, booknik

His personality

Amedeo was brought up in the Jewish family of businessman Flaminio Modigliani and Eugenia Garsen. The Modigliani family comes from the rural area of ​​the same name south of Rome. Amedeo's father had once traded coal and firewood, and now owned a modest brokerage office and, in addition, was somehow connected with the exploitation of silver mines in Sardinia. Amedeo was born just when officials came to his parents’ house to take away the property that had already been described for debts. For Eugenia Garsen, this was a monstrous surprise, since according to Italian laws, the property of a woman in labor is inviolable. Just before the arrival of the judges, the household hastily piled everything that was most valuable in the house onto her bed. In general, a scene took place in the style of Italian comedies of the 50s and 60s. Although in fact there was nothing funny in the events that shook the Modigliani house just before the birth of Amedeo, and the mother saw in them a bad omen for the newborn.

In his mother's diary, two-year-old Dedo received his first description: A little spoiled, a little capricious, but good-looking, like an angel. In 1895 he suffered a serious illness. Then the following entry appeared in my mother’s diary: Dedo had very severe pleurisy, and I had not yet recovered from the terrible fear for him. The character of this child is not yet sufficiently formed for me to express a definite opinion about him. Let's see what will develop from this cocoon. Maybe an artist? F - another significant phrase from the lips of the observant and passionately loving Evgenia Garsen.

At the beginning of 1906, among the young artists, writers, and actors who lived in Montmartre as a kind of colony, a woman appeared and immediately attracted attention. new figure. It was Amedeo Modigliani, who had just arrived from Italy and settled on the Rue Colancourt, in a small barn-workshop in the middle of a wasteland overgrown with bushes. He is 22 years old, he is dazzlingly handsome, his quiet voice seemed hot, his gait seemed flying, and his whole appearance seemed strong and harmonious.

In communicating with any person, he was aristocratically polite, simple and benevolent, and immediately endeared him to his spiritual responsiveness. Some said then that Modigliani - aspiring sculptor, others - that he is a painter. Both were true.

Bohemian life quickly attracted Modigliani. Modigliani, in the company of his artist friends (among them Picasso), became addicted to drinking, and was often seen walking the streets drunk, and sometimes naked.

He was called a homeless tramp. His restlessness was obvious. To some she seemed like an attribute of a good-for-nothing lifestyle, a characteristic feature of bohemia, others saw here almost the dictates of fate, and it seems that everything agreed that this eternal homelessness was a blessing for Modigliani, because it unleashed his wings for creative flights.

His fights with men over ladies became part of Montmartre folklore. He used huge amounts of cocaine and smoked marijuana.

In 1917, the artist's exhibition, containing mainly nude images, was closed by the police. It so happened that this exhibition was the first and last during the artist’s lifetime.

Modigliani continued to write until tuberculous meningitis brought him to the grave. While he was alive, he was known only in the Parisian artist community, but by 1922 Modigliani had gained worldwide fame.

Sex life

Modigliani loved women, and they loved him. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of women have been in the bed of this elegant handsome man.

Back at school, Amedeo noticed that girls paid special attention to him. Modigliani said that at the age of 15 he was seduced by a maid working in their house.

Although he, like many of his colleagues, was not averse to visiting brothels, the bulk of his mistresses were his models.

And during his career he changed hundreds of models. Many posed for him naked, interrupting several times during the session to make love.

Modigliani liked simple women most of all, for example, laundresses, peasant women, and waitresses.

These girls were terribly flattered by attention beautiful artist, and they obediently gave themselves to him.

Sexual partners

Despite his many sexual partners, Modigliani loved only two women in his life.

The first was Beatrice Hastings, an English aristocrat and poetess, five years older than the artist. They met in 1914 and immediately became inseparable lovers.

They drank together, had fun and often fought. Modigliani, in a rage, could drag her by the hair along the sidewalk if he suspected her of attention to other men.

But despite all these dirty scenes, it was Beatrice who was his main source of inspiration. During the heyday of their love, Modigliani created his best works. Still this one whirlwind romance could not exist for long. In 1916, Beatrice ran away from Modigliani. Since then they have not seen each other again.

The artist grieved for his unfaithful girlfriend, but not for long.

In July 1917, Modigliani met 19-year-old Jeanne Hebuterne.

The young student came from a French Catholic family. The delicate, pale girl and the artist settled together, despite the resistance of Jeanne’s parents, who did not want a Jewish son-in-law. Jeanne not only served as a model for the artist’s works, she lived with him for years serious illness, periods of rudeness and outright rowdy.

In November 1918, Jeanne gave birth to Modigliani’s daughter, and in July 1919 he proposed marriage to her “as soon as all the papers arrive.”

Why they never got married remains a mystery, since these two were, as they say, made for each other and remained together until his death 6 months later.

When Modigliani lay dying in Paris, he invited Jeanne to join him in death, “so that I could be with my beloved model in paradise and enjoy eternal bliss with her.”

On the day of the artist’s funeral, Zhanna was on the verge of despair, but did not cry, but was only silent the whole time.

Pregnant with their second child, she threw herself from the fifth floor to her death.

A year later, at the insistence of the Modigliani family, they were united under one gravestone. The second inscription on it read:

Jeanne Hebuterne. Born in Paris in April 1898. Died in Paris on January 25, 1920. Faithful companion of Amedeo Modigliani, who did not want to survive separation from him.

Modigliani and Anna Akhmatova

A. A. Akhmatova met Amedeo Modigliani in 1910 in Paris, during her honeymoon.

Her acquaintance with A. Modigliani continued in 1911, at which time the artist created 16 drawings - portraits of A. A. Akhmatova. In her essay about Amedeo Modigliani, she wrote: In 10, I saw him extremely rarely, only a few times. Nevertheless, he wrote to me all winter. (I remember several phrases from his letters, one of them: Vous etes en moi comme une hantise / You are like an obsession in me). He didn’t tell me that he wrote poetry.

As I now understand, what struck him most about me was my ability to guess thoughts, see other people’s dreams and other little things that those who know me have long been accustomed to.

At this time, Modigliani was raving about Egypt. He took me to the Louvre to see the Egyptian section and assured me that everything else was unworthy of attention. Drew my head in decoration Egyptian queens and dancers and seemed completely captivated by the great art of Egypt. Apparently Egypt was his latest hobby. Soon he becomes so original that you don’t want to remember anything when looking at his canvases.

He did not draw me from life, but at his home - he gave these drawings to me. There were sixteen of them. He asked me to frame them and hang them in my room. They died in a Tsarskoye Selo house in the first years of the revolution. Only one survived; unfortunately, it contains less anticipation of its future than the others."

Until he moved to Paris in 1906. In Paris, he met such artists as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuşi, who had a great influence on his work. Modigliani had poor health - he often suffered from lung diseases and died of tuberculous meningitis at the age of 35. The artist’s life is known only from a few reliable sources.

Modigliani's legacy consists mainly of paintings and sketches, but from 1914 to 1914 he was mainly engaged in sculptures. Both on canvas and in sculpture, Modigliani's main motif was man. In addition, several landscapes have survived; still lifes and genre paintings did not interest the artist. Modigliani often turned to the works of representatives of the Renaissance, as well as to African art, which was popular at that time. At the same time, Modigliani’s work cannot be attributed to any of the modern movements of that time, such as cubism or fauvism. Because of this, art historians consider Modigliani's work separately from the main trends of the time. During his lifetime, Modigliani’s works were not successful and became popular only after the artist’s death: at two Sotheby’s auctions in 2010, two paintings by Modigliani were sold for 60.6 and 68.9 million US dollars, and in 2015 “Reclining Nude” was sold at Christie's for $170.4 million.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ Diary of a Genius. Amedeo Modigliani. Part VII. Diary of a Genius. Amedeo Modigliani. Part VII.

✪ Modigliani, "Girl in a Shirt"

✪ Diary of a Genius. Amedeo Modigliani. Part VI. Diary of a Genius. Amedeo Modigliani. Part VI.

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Biography

Childhood

Amedeo (Iedidia) Modigliani was born to Sephardic Jewish parents Flaminio Modigliani and Eugenia Garcin in Livorno (Tuscany, Italy). He was the youngest (fourth) of the children. His older brother, Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani (1872-1947, family name Meno), - later a famous Italian anti-fascist politician. His mother's great-grandfather, Solomon Garcin, and his wife Regina Spinosa settled in Livorno in the 18th century (however, their son Giuseppe moved to Marseille in 1835); The father's family moved to Livorno from Rome in the mid-19th century (the father himself was born in Rome in 1840). Flaminio Modigliani (son of Emanuele Modigliani and Olympia Della Rocca) was a mining engineer who supervised coal mines in Sardinia and managed nearly thirty acres of forest land that his family owned.

By the time Amedeo (family name) was born Dedo) the family’s affairs (trade of firewood and coal) fell into disrepair; his mother, born and raised in Marseille in 1855, had to earn a living by teaching French and translating, including the works of Gabriele d'Annunzio. In 1886, his grandfather, Isaaco Garcin, who became impoverished and moved to his daughter from Marseille, settled in Modigliani’s house, and until his death in 1894, he was seriously involved in raising his grandchildren. His aunt Gabriela Garcin (who later committed suicide) also lived in the house and thus Amedeo was immersed in French from childhood, which later facilitated his integration in Paris. It is believed that it was the romantic nature of the mother that had a huge influence on the worldview of the young Modigliani. Her diary, which she began to keep shortly after Amedeo's birth, is one of the few documentary sources about the artist's life.

At the age of 11, Modigliani fell ill with pleurisy, and in 1898, typhus, which was common at the time incurable disease. This became a turning point in his life. According to the stories of his mother, while lying in a feverish delirium, Modigliani raved about the masterpieces of Italian masters, and also recognized his destiny as an artist. After recovery, Amedeo's parents allowed Amedeo to leave school so that he could begin taking drawing and painting lessons at the Livorno Academy of Arts.

Study in Italy

In 1898, Modigliani began visiting private art studio Guglielmo Micheli. At 14 years old, he was the youngest student in his class. In addition to lessons in a studio with a strong focus on impressionism, Modigliani learned to depict the nude in the atelier of Gino Romiti. By 1900, young Modigliani's health had deteriorated, in addition he fell ill with tuberculosis and was forced to spend the winter of 1900-1901 with his mother in Naples, Rome and Capri. From his travels, Modigliani wrote five letters to his friend Oscar Ghiglia, from which one can learn about Modigliani's attitude towards Rome.

In the spring of 1901, Modigliani followed Oscar Ghiglia to Florence - they were friends despite the nine-year age difference. After spending the winter in Rome in the spring of 1902, Modigliani entered the Free School of Nude Painting (Scuola libera di Nudo) in Florence, where he studied art with Giovanni Fattori. It was during that period that he began to visit Florentine museums and churches and study the art of the Renaissance that admired him.

A year later, in 1903, Modigliani again followed his friend Oscar, this time to Venice, where he remained until moving to Paris. In March he entered the Venice Institute of Fine Arts (Istituto di Belle Arti di Venezia), while continuing to study the works of the old masters. At the Venice Biennales of 1903 and 1905, Modigliani became acquainted with the works of French impressionists - Rodin's sculptures and examples of symbolism. It is believed that it was in Venice that he became addicted to hashish and began to take part in spiritualistic séances.

Paris

At the beginning of 1906, with a small amount of money that his mother was able to collect for him, Modigliani moved to Paris, which he had been dreaming of for several years, as he hoped to find understanding and incentive for creativity in the environment Parisian artists. At the beginning of the 20th century, Paris was the center of world art, young unknown artists quickly became famous, and more and more avant-garde directions of painting were opened. Modigliani spent the first months in Parisian museums and churches, getting acquainted with painting and sculpture in the halls of the Louvre, as well as with representatives of modern art. At first, Modigliani lived in a comfortable hotel on the Right Bank, as he considered it appropriate to his social status, but soon he rented a small studio in Montmartre and began attending classes at the Colarossi Academy. At the same time, Modigliani met Maurice Utrillo, with whom they remained friends for life. At the same time, Modigliani became closer to the poet Max Jacob, whom he then painted repeatedly, and Pablo Picasso, who lived near him in Bateau Lavoir. Despite his poor health, Modigliani took an active part in the noisy life of Montmartre. One of his first Parisian friends was the German artist Ludwig Meidner, who called him “the last representative of bohemianism”:

“Our Modigliani, or Modi, as he is called, was a typical and at the same time very talented representative of bohemian Montmartre; rather, even he was the last true representative of bohemia".

While living in Paris, Modigliani experienced great financial difficulties: although his mother regularly sent him money, it was not enough to survive in Paris. The artist had to change apartments often. Sometimes he even left his works in apartments when he was forced to leave another shelter because he could not pay for the apartment.

In the spring of 1907, Modigliani moved into a mansion that was rented out to young artists by Dr. Paul Alexandre. The young doctor became Modigliani's first patron, and their friendship lasted seven years. Alexander bought drawings and paintings by Modigliani (his collection included 25 paintings and 450 graphic works), and also organized portrait orders for him. In 1907, several of Modigliani's works were exhibited at the Salon d'Automne; the following year, at the insistence of Paul Alexandre, he exhibited five of his works at the Salon des Indépendants, among them the portrait of the "Jewish Woman". Modigliani's works remained unnoticed by the public because they did not belong to the then fashionable movement of cubism, which arose in 1907 and whose founders were Picasso and Georges Braque. In the spring of 1909, Modigliani received his first order through Alexander and painted the portrait “Amazon”.

Sculpture

In April 1909, Modigliani moved to an atelier in Montparnasse. Through his patron he met the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuşi, who later had a huge influence on Amedeo. For some time, Modigliani preferred sculpture to painting. They even said that for his sculptures Modigliani stole stone blocks and wooden sleepers from the construction sites of the metro being built at that time. The artist himself was never puzzled by the denial of rumors and fabrications about himself. There are several versions of why Modigliani changed his field of activity. According to one of them, the artist had long dreamed of taking up sculpture, but did not have technical capabilities, which became available to him only after moving to a new studio. According to another, Modigliani wanted to try his hand at sculpture because of the failure of his paintings at exhibitions.

Thanks to Zborowski, Modigliani's works were exhibited in London and received admiring responses. In May 1919, the artist returned to Paris, where he took part in the Autumn Salon. Having learned about Jeanne's second pregnancy, the couple decided to get engaged, but the wedding never took place due to Modigliani's illness with tuberculosis at the end of 1919.

Modigliani died on January 24, 1920 from tuberculous meningitis in a Paris clinic. A day later, on January 25, Jeanne Hebuterne, who was 9 months pregnant, committed suicide. Amedeo was buried in a modest grave without a monument in the Jewish section of the Père Lachaise cemetery; in 1930, 10 years after Jeanne's death, her remains were buried in a nearby grave. Their child was adopted by Modigliani's sister.

Creation

The direction in which Modigliani worked is traditionally referred to as expressionism. However, this issue is not so simple. It’s not for nothing that Amedeo is called an artist of the Parisian school - during his stay in Paris he was influenced by various masters visual arts: Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne, Picasso, Renoir. His work contains echoes of primitivism and abstraction. Modigliani's sculptural studios clearly show the influence of African sculpture, fashionable at that time, on his work. Actually, expressionism in Modigliani’s work is manifested in the expressive sensuality of his paintings, in their great emotionality.

Nude

Amedeo Modigliani is rightfully considered the singer of the beauty of the naked female body. He was one of the first to depict nude more emotionally realistic. It was this circumstance that at one time led to the lightning-quick closure of its first personal exhibition in Paris . The nude in Modigliani's work is not abstract, refined images, but real portrait images. The technique and warm light palette in Modigliani’s paintings “revitalize” his canvases. Amedeo's paintings, made in the nude genre, are considered the pearl of his creative heritage.